Christ Academy to Pay Plaintiff $100K for Retaliation

Christ Academy to Pay Plaintiff $100K for Retaliation

Christ Academy will pay one former employee $100-thousand for retaliating against her, resulting in her termination from the school.&nbsp; That decision comes after six hours of deliberations in a civil lawsuit pitting two former employees against the school.

A jury of five men and three women finds that Christ Academy retaliated against Keven Robertson, the school's former headmaster, for firing her after she told board of trustee members she was thinking about firing then athletic director Tommy Sugg. During testimony several people said that the school's largest donor would no longer give money if Sugg was fired. "I am so thankful we have a justice system that works. I am so thankful and I really feel like justice happened," Robertson says. Robertson and Robbie Kelly, former development director of the school, also alleged they were fired because they are women; therefore, the board discriminated against them when they were fired. The jury found those allegations are not true. Karen Fitzgerald, Robertson's attorney, says, "Gender discrimination is very, very difficult to prove, and I respect the jury's opinion on that claim, and we're just so happy the jury saw the facts as we saw them in regards to the retaliation claim." The jury also found the gender discrimination and retaliation claims made by Kelly to be untrue. Rod Tanner, Kelly's attorney, says, "We're really disappointed by the verdict. We believe we proved her case of gender discrimination. We believe that we proved her case of retaliation in that only 24 days after her complaint of gender bias was presented to the board of trustees, she was fired." Kelly's attorney says he and his client will soon decide where to go from here. "It's a difficult loss for her and we're going to review our options and determine whether there are steps that can be taken to possibly approve the verdict," Tanner says. As for Robertson, she says she's ready to move on. "I know a lot of people in this area have been really involved in this case, and i just hope that now that it's over, we can close the book and learn a lesson from it," Robertson says. A spokesman for Christ Academy told our crew he'd be willing to speak on the school's behalf. Our crew waited for more than an hour for the representative to show, but he did not. He later sent us this statement: "Christ Academy is supportive and grateful for the United States Judicial system. We are pleased that the jury properly found no gender discrimination in this case. Christ Academy takes a great deal of pride in ensuring equality in the workplace. We are exploring our legal options ahead and we look forward to beginning our school year on 27 August and furthering the mission of Christ Academy to produce academically well prepared students who model the character of Jesus Christ."